Cafes

Below is information about the availability of possibly vegan food/drinks at some the more common chain cafes in Japan. This information is based on a review of the allergen information provided on the cafe’s website. In Japan, restaurants and cafes are required to give information about the presence of the following allergens in their food products:

• eggs, milk, wheat, buckwheat, peanut, shrimp and crab.

It is recommended that they also give information about the following allergens:

This information can be useful for vegans. Of course it is not definitive, as other animal products may still be in the food – e.g. fish dashi. Fish dashi, skipjack tuna dashi in particular, is very commonly used in Japan in sauces, soups, and savory dishes. Other types of fish such as tuna or anchovies, seafood such as scallops, and also duck or honey can also be present in the food and not mentioned on allergen charts. Honey is commonly used at some cafes in Japan. So, allergen charts are merely a good starting point, allowing you to narrow your search and ask a few good questions.

Some foods contain flavouring and emulsifiers which may be animal-derived or sugar that may be bone-char processed. We have marked below wherever we have information on how these ingredients were made.

Note cafes often change their menus, so it is a good idea to check their websites before you visit. Of course it is always a good idea to check with staff that the item you want to order is vegan (if possible).

Wherever possible, we have noted below where foods were cooked together with animal products or may have cross-contamination from being processed together with food containing animal products, but food may also have cross-contamination from wheat, soy, or other ingredients. Please check allergen charts before eating if you have food allergies or intolerances.

Doutor

The drinks that appear possibly vegan from a review of the allergen chart (published 3/14/2019 for drinks and 4/11/2019 for food) are:

Some of the fruit juices may be seasonally available. None of the food at Doutor is vegan per the allergen chart. The “coffee fresh” creamer contains milk.

A Soy Latte is pictured below.

Starbucks

The Starbucks menu in Japan includes a soy latte, but you can also order other drinks with soymilk for an extra ¥50. However, even when ordered with soymilk, some drinks still have dairy in them, so please check the list below. The soymilk at Starbucks has been reported to use emulsifier made of plants, but the sugar they use was previously confirmed to be bone char processed. Note you can get a ¥20 discount when you use your own mug, tumbler or cup!

The Starbucks websites states (from autotranslate): Please be aware in advance that the products offered at the store are not allergy compatible products and do not guarantee the removal of allergens.

It’s been reported that some of these drinks, like the Matcha Cream Frappucino/抹茶 クリーム フラペチーノ® are potentially vegan when ordered with soymilk and without whipped cream, and that the staff can look up the ingredients on request to see if ordering without whipped cream would make the drink dairy-free.

For customizations, the White Mocha Syrup/ホワイトモカシロップ, Whipped Cream/ホイップクリーム, Chocolate Chips/チョコレートチップ and Caramel Sauce/キャラメルソース are not vegan because they all contain dairy.

The other customizations all appear potentially vegan from the allergen chart: